History of Wildlife Management

• Humans colonize N.A. – Quaternary Period, Pleistocene Epoch – ice ages 10,000 ybp

• Large mammal extinctions (exploitation?)

= 66% of megafauna extinct

History of Wildlife Management

• 500 ybp, Europeans arrive….

• Spanish bring horses, livestock

• Other Europeans exploit fisheries, fur, meat, feathers…. (1870-1915)

History of Wildlife Management• Fur trade & near extinction of beaver

(Castor canadensis)

History of Wildlife Management• Fur trade & near extinction of beaver

(Castor canadensis) • Market hunting

• Near extinction of bison : 60M to ~150

History of Wildlife Management• Market hunting

• Bison

• Successful extinction of passenger pigeon

- immense abundance (400 km long, 1800)

History of Wildlife Management• Passenger pigeon

- immense abundance (400 km long, 1800)

- 1878 – 3 months, 1.5 M pigeons from MI to market

History of Wildlife Management• Passenger pigeon

- last sighting 1899

- 14-yr old boy shot last wild pigeon in Ohio (1900)

- last captive pigeon died:

Male (1912)

Female (1914)

History of Wildlife Management• Habitat loss & Exploitation

History of Wildlife ManagementExample:

wood ducks

-

wild turkeys

-

History of Wildlife ManagementExample: (MI)

American marten

-

fisher

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Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)• Born in Burlington, IA

• Avid outdoorsman

• Summers in MI’s Les Cheneaux Islands

Aldo Leopold• Master’s in Forestry – Yale

Univ. School of Forestry• 19 yrs with USFS (NM/AZ)• 1933 – Professor of Game

Management, UW-Madison

Estella & Aldo

Aldo Leopold• Avid birder

• Restoration ecology

• Phenology

• Conservationist

• Sustainability

UW-Madison Arboretum

• Aldo Leopold – A Sand County

Almanac– Game Management– 1st university wildlife

program (UW-Madison)

– co-founder The Wilderness Society

– Land Ethic

Father of Modern Wildlife Management

The Professor

Leopold’s “Law”

of Interspersion

of Habitat

The Shack

‘to live on a piece of land without spoiling it.’

Aldo Leopold Legacy Center

• Site of Leopold’s Death

• Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™

• Locally-harvested wood• 1st carbon neutral building• Annually, produce 110% of the

energy consumed on site• Use 70% less energy than a

typical 12,000 ft2 building built simply to code

Modern Wildlife Management

Benefits & Uses of Wildlife Resources

• Economics

• Consumption

Benefits & Uses of Wildlife Resources

• Non-consumptive recreation

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Survey of Wildlife-Related Recreation

1955…. 1980 1985 1991 1996

10% 10% ($ 8.5B)

9 % ($10B)

7% ($12B)

7% ($17B)

18% 25% ($17B)

26% ($28B)

20% ($25B)

18% ($36B)

??? 49% ($ 4B)

74% ($14B)

39% ($18B)

31% ($29B)

National Survey ofFishing, Hunting, and

Wildlife-Associated Recreation

1996-2006 Trends: Numbers (Millions)

National Survey ofFishing, Hunting, and

Wildlife-Associated Recreation

1996-2006 Trends: Expenditures

(Billions of 2006 USD)

National Survey ofFishing, Hunting, and

Wildlife-Associated Recreation

2006 Trends• Hunting

•

• Fishing

National Survey ofFishing, Hunting, and

Wildlife-Associated Recreation

1996-2006 Trends in MI: Numbers (thousands)

National Survey ofFishing, Hunting, and

Wildlife-Associated Recreation

1996-2006 Trends in MI: Expenditures

(Millions of 2006 USD)

National Survey ofFishing, Hunting, and

Wildlife-Associated Recreation

Benefits & Uses of Wildlife Resources

• Other benefits

Public Attitudes, Ethics, Values

• Natural resources professionals =

• Stakeholder groups are diverse:

Future for Wildlife• Teaming with Wildlife & State wildlife

agency funding proposals – what is this?

• Should non-consumptive users have a “tax” similar to anglers and hunters?

• What proposals are being considered?

http://www.teaming.com/pdf/tww_history.pdf